Easier said than done, but it can be done!

Its been a while since my last blog post, oops! Not for any particular reason, but I’m very much alive and I’m back! If you are just reading this blog for the first time and you are catching up on blog posts, please know that there is a lot more to our life than "Young Olive Trees", this blog is meant for a specific purpose which is to encourage couples who are going through fertility challenges, to help family members and friends understand what they might be going through and basically to inspire and brighten up your day! I'm here to give you the right focus and share some personal experience.

While I've been away, a lot has happened, we all know that life is truly not a bed of roses but what is more important is your perspective on life.

Every now and then we encounter obstacles, some of them so annoying, some of them almost seem mountain sized, too high and wide to avoid. Therefore, I’ve made up my mind to be proactive against obstacles and there is a perfect tool for this – prayer. Since we believe that we’ll be parents at some point in our lives, we’ll have to get rid of distractions along the way. It is clearly not just a physical issue of infertility, no viable sperm, old eggs, ovarian cysts, or whatever your case may be. It is a spiritual one as well, it could be a test of your faith, your patience, your trust, or a way for you to truly grow in all these areas. I just want you to know that there is a time for everything. Imagine that things are being worked out in the background for you, you know that God already knew of your children before they were even conceived, so it is obvious that their time will come, and yet again, you know that God is never late, He has a perfect and good plan for His children. Therefore, it would be really silly to fret, no matter how tempting or easy it is to do so!  

We have had to make some tough decisions in the past few weeks and I have had my share of crying – nothing wrong with that. I am not a perfect in anyway but I can boldly say that I do not let my emotions rule me and I doubt that anything is too big for God to do. (see Abraham and Sarah’s story). It’s also good to remember that in times of good news and not so good news, remain steadfast and thankful.

Easier said than done, but it can be done!

P.S -

If you are making some tough decisions today, be it for a job, school, family, children, anything at all. Here are some scriptures that will help you:

1. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5)
    
2. Thus says the Lord, Your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way you should go.” (Isaiah 48:17)
    
3. “I will instruct you and teach you in the way should go; I will guide you with My eye.” (Psalm 32:8)
    
4. “For this is God, our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even to death.” (Psalm 48:14)
    
5. “The Lord will guide you continually …” (Isaiah 58:11)

What to do, What to do....

What can you do while you are waiting??

This blog post idea came to me because I read a blog that mentioned about making lemonade out of lemons, the lemons were situations in the author's life which were not ideal but she made up her mind to make lemonade out of it. I realize that there are a lot of couples dealing with infertility and it is so bothersome and such a heavy weight to them that it becomes the main event in their lives and forget about how to make some good lemonade out of it.

I just want to emphasize that I believe you have already been blessed with children according to God's promises, and His Will will be established at the appropriate time. Having said that, here are some tips of what you can do while you wait -

• Do fun activities that you enjoy - for me that included traveling, working-out, volunteering, training for 1/2 marathons e.t.c. This allows me to live my life and I really enjoy doing that!

• Host baby showers for friends - There is nothing like honoring others and sharing in their joy, do unto others and it will be done back to you in ways that you cannot imagine. I think I am a pro at hosting baby showers, I even have a toolkit with some supplies for such events! It just makes me happy to see my expectant friends and all that blue/pink/yellow is so exciting! Of course, I am collecting tips on how to throw a fab baby shower of my own. I read on another blog that talks about infertility and the blogger wrote about how she told her family and friends to stop inviting her to baby showers, this really made me sad to think that someone could be so overwhelmed with their present condition that they refuse to celebrate others.

• Spend quality time with your spouse - Since we all know that once the children start popping out, the couple-time will drastically reduce for at least the first few years, from poopy diapers to mid-night feedings, to kissing the boo-boos, to chasing after happy feet toddlers, there is a whole lot to anticipate! So why not take time for the two of you and enjoy each other. I have taken full advantage of this, we go out on dates at least once a week and have deep conversations. It's so much fun and I feel like my "couple-time cup" is already very full and it will sustain me for a while especially during the baby phase. An added plus to this is that you are building on your foundation as a couple, and you can even discuss the type of parents you want to be. You can also start to form your own traditions and recruit the kiddies into this at the right time.

• Prepare yourself financially - There are costs that come with children, from before birth right up to college-bound kids. Any financial strain on a family is not healthy so why not device a plan right now to get out of debt, increase your savings, invest properly, create a budget e.t.c. We have done all these and my favorite is our "baby savings", its just an account that we invest in periodically and its amazing to see the numbers grow.

Hope these tips help, it won't be for much longer, so enjoy this period while it lasts. Feel free to share any tips you have. Happy Waiting!

Update 03/11/11:
Just wanted to share some inspirational Word about waiting, click below:
http://www.youversion.com/notes/781402/beginning-with-god-devotional-by-pastor-lan-march-the-patience-test

A Click and a Boom: Story Part 1 of 2

I am going to attempt to keep the story short and simple, so I'm writing this in 2 parts but I'm sure I'll add more over time or my future posts will explain any areas I skipped over, feel free to send me a message if there are any questions you have.

Hubby and I had a plan to have children beginning in year 1.5 of our marriage until year 6 (we are currently in year 4), this will result in 3 kiddos during this time frame. Being the serial planner that I am, I already had the conception dates in mind for all three and their potential birth date, making sure to eliminate the "'ber" months (September - December) so that they are not 1 year behind in school, the Christmas/Thanksgiving period, so that they are not stuck with celebrating their birthdays during the holiday and end up with birthmas gifts (birthday  + Christmas gifts), and our birth months (my husband and I are born in the same month) to avoid celebrating too many parties in one month! Haha, so you get my logic, please don't judge me :-)

Anyway, all this aside, I was beginning to get very excited and started to imagine what our Olives will look like (Olives = our children), I imagined their gender, their names, how we would raise them, how they will have our best characteristics (please Lord!), their personalities etc etc....So year 1.5 came and went, so did year 2, year 2.5 and whoa, no Olives, what is happening here?  I thought it was all supposed to be a click and a boom, but here we are one whole year and nothing? Does this mean I have to readjust my conception plan? We decided to see our Docs, got lots of tests done, we had already started to do all we could to help this click-boom process, this included ovulation charting, basal body temperature checking, lots of vitamins, exercise, diet, reading every article I could find about this process, and yes, praying, praying, and praying. Meanwhile, this was another year gone by (year 2.5 - 3.5) and it was not a very easy one.

With being the positive person that I am, I believed that this would happen very soon, so I stashed up on 20-something pregnancy tests (These things are expensive in the store $9.99-$15.99 each, I'm a bargain shopper, so click here for a deal on pregnancy tests!). So with every odd sneeze, little headache, slight tummy ache, or cough, I would start getting very suspicious, run to my stash and test myself, this must be it, yeah! But on each occasion, I think I must have tested 8 TIMES, they were all negative, ugh! I think I cried the first five times. Thankfully I have a sweetheart of a husband who didn't give me a funny eye, it was all emotion and I think a little bit of fear mixed in, I could almost hear the devil laughing, as if it was a "gotcha" joke....

To be continued...

My Young Olive Trees

The olive tree was described as the "king of trees" and was considered to be the symbol of beauty, virility, prosperity and divine blessing. Wow, imagine that!

Psalm 128:3 says "...your children will be like vigorous young olive trees as they sit around your table."

I had to look up the picture of an olive tree to get some kind of visual, what does this tree really look like? The pictures I found below are beyond amazing, look at the trunk of that tree, so strong and I am sure it has very deep roots. In most of pictures, it looks like the olive tree does not grow very tall, but it sure does spread out wide, I like that! It's branches stretch out to reach beyond itself. And it's fruit, the olive, it's very good for the body, inside and out. I actually use olive oil to deep-condition my hair. Of course it's wonderful to cook with, and I know there are lots of other nutritional benefits.

The olive oil derived from the fruit is used in anointing and the leaves of the trees were used in ancient times to crown the victors of friendly games and wars, because of how it was held as a symbol of abundance, glory and peace. Old olive trees are very hardly, drought-, disease-, and fire resistant, so yes, they do stand the test of time.

  

Therefore, my children, my young olive trees are from God and they shall be a symbol of beauty, virility, prosperity and divine blessing! They will have a wonderful life as they grow up because they will be deeply rooted strong trees that spread out wide and bear fruit that will feed and bless others, and into their old age, they will remain sturdy and resistant against outside elements that are not of God.